11:40 pm - WonderCon 2010, Day 2: Esplanade DayOn the BART to WonderCon Saturday morning, I encountered, as one does, people on their way to WonderCon, identifiable by their bags, geeky shirts, and extremely geeky conversation. One woman was expressing her love for Enterprise, which was something I'd never seen before. As we exited the train, a girl asked me what the quickest way to Moscone was. I said, "The way I'm going." She was the DJ for the Just Dance booth, whatever that was, and she needed to get down there quickly, so I gave her directions.

I was also running late, as I was supposed to meet Seanan (seanan_mcguire) around 9, but she, too, was running late, so it turned out we were both heading to Moscone at the same time.

We had a secret plan for Saturday morning: Seanan was going to give me a copy of Rosemary and Rue to give to Amy Acker. She was waiting for me downstairs in Room 105, the much shorter professionals line into the Exhibit Hall, which would also help her get to the Lionsgate booth to pick up tickets for the Kick-Ass screening.

Saturday is always the biggest day for costumes, so this post is going to have more of those pictures you've all been looking forward to.

Adorable!

I met up with Seanan and her mom, who was wearing a chicken hat she had bought yesterday. Okay. Seanan gave me a book, and I asked if she wanted to sign it. Oh, good idea.

I now had time to quickly go get lunch from Good Morning Cafe, as I had promised. On the way, I saw Richard Hatch dragging his luggage behind him, walking to Moscone with the crowd just like a regular person. The woman at the cafe recognized me, and I told her I had said I'd be back! She was glad I had come. Today, I got a turkey sandwich with avocado on sourdough.

Back at Moscone, I took the obligatory Stormtrooper shot.

On my way to the press room, I encountered a couple great costumes.

The Cylon's red light did, in fact, scan back and forth. It was pretty awesome.

The Happy Town press room was at 10:00, and although I hadn't really intended to check out Happy Town, I wasn't going to pass up a chance to meet Amy Acker. I even watched the first couple screeners online so I had some things to say. Unfortunately, I completely blanked on taking out my recorder, so I have no record of the fun we had.

I had taken the seat right next to the char reserved for The Talent, which wasn't the best vantage point for photographs but was cool for, you know, sitting right next to The Talent. Like Geoff Stults, star of the show. He started out by taking a picture of us. Heh. I always think it's cute when actors do that. It's like they can't believe people want to talk to them. YOU COME FROM THE SHINY BOX!

He was a genial, friendly guy. He asked if we'd seen the show, and a woman next to him piped up that she'd seen the pilot. "Then the two of us can have a nice conversation," he said.

I think he looks distractingly like Peter Krause. He asked how we were doing, unfamiliar with the whole con experience and what we did all day.

He spoke well of the cast atmosphere, how it felt like a family, and singled out Amy Acker as "the only nice one" when she arrived to take his place.

When Amy sat down—right next to me!—I put Rosemary and Rue in front of her and said, "My friend Seanan is a big fan and wants you to have a copy of her book."

She was a bit surprised and confused at the random guy handing her a random book, but then she graciously accepted it and exclaimed, "Plane reading!"

Seanan's evil plan to get her book into as many potentially influential hands as possible continues.

Grr! Aargh!

(That's not what she was doing. But she could have been, you don't know. I mean, I know. But you don't know.)

I'm not sure what she was doing, but she did at some point say that she really enjoyed working in the horror genre.

I complimented her chameleon-like acting skills and asked whether they'd be on display in the show, and she said that maybe next season she could get possessed by a demon.

However this shot came about, this is what it would look like.

I took many terrible pictures of Amy Acker. This one turned out nice, though. I was sitting right next to her, so sometimes she would turn to me when answering a question, and she would be looking right at me, like right in my goddamn eyes, and it was like HOLY FUCKING SHIT AMY ACKER IS LOOKING AT ME.

I mean, I'm like that when any pretty girl actually looks at me, but this was Amy fucking Acker.

One such moment was when she talked about doing guest spots on shows, and how she'd recently guest-starred on Human Target, which was the first time (or at least a time) she'd worked on a show where she didn't know anyone.

"We saw it last night!"

She turned to me in surprise. "Was it good?" Amy Acker was asking me a question. Me! A question! I told her I had enjoyed it.

She smiled a lot. She's very sweet, as you'd expect.

She said that she actually found it harder to play this sort of "normal" character because she was so similar to her. Her husband noted that the character was just like her, and she wasn't sure whether to be offended.

Geoff walked by, and I said, "She's saying all these nasty things about you."

"She won't!" he said. "She's not capable of it!"

Our time was up, and I told Amy to enjoy her book. And then we got M.C. Gainey! Who, you ask?

Mr. Friendly!!

He was a fun guy, and he likes that he gets to play a sheriff instead of a criminal. Not only that, a father and grandfather. He's too old to be running around and shooting at people, so it's the sort of role he'd like to take now.

I asked him about some scenes in the pilot where he seems to be channeling a person or a voice or something, going into trances. I wanted to know how he was able to switch his mindset, what was he thinking about when he wasn't speaking "as himself"? He said that he remembered something someone had told him, that if, for instance, you were trying not to think about a white bear, well, that was what you were going to be thinking of, no matter how hard you tried not to. So he just tried not think about the white bear.

Fun fact! M.C. Gainey is the reason Mr. Friendly is gay. He was annoyed that time Kate found his fake beard on the ground and then his locker. He was all, "I have a locker? And this beard is fake? You couldn't have told me that?" So when there was a bit about Kate taking a shower and she told him not to peek, and his line was "You're not my type," he decided that if Kate wasn't his type...Sawyer was. He started playing Friendly as gay. For instance, when they asked him why he was throwing the football so terribly, he was all, "He's never thrown a football in his life! But if Jack wants to throw a football, he's going to throw a football!" And then the writers made it textually canon.

(And when the actor playing his boyfriend asked how they kept up their relationship with him traveling back and forth from the Island, he said, "Look at you and look at me. There's money involved.")

He said that although he hadn't seen the Lost finale, he had found out how it would end (he hadn't meant to, but it had just happened), and he thinks that the true fans of the show will be satisfied, but the people who are just watching the show because of the zeitgeist factor may not like it.

I just find this shot amusing.

I asked him what Alt-Friendly would be like, and I forget his whole answer, but he thought that he would definitely be someone in a position to help people out.

Then there were publicity shots!

Amy Acker is pretty!

I couldn't bring myself to just go up and chat with her, though. Or ask her to sign my Angel DVDs. I didn't really know enough about her to have a real conversation.

These three were all riffing on each other; it was amusing.

M.C. had one some crazy shorts.

Goofballs!

Oh, here's another, since they all came out pretty nice.

And here they are with the producers.

Scott Rosenberg, creator, said he was more influenced by 'Salem's Lot than Twin Peaks. Geoff had also mentioned the Stephen King vibe, the small town where anyone could be a suspect.

He answered one question I had before I even asked it: they will reveal who the Magic Man is at the end of the eight-episode first season, but only to the audience. He likes knowing where the story is going so he can plant clues accordingly and people will be able to look back and know they knew from the beginning. He cited his work on the U.S. Life on Mars remake, confirming that the utterly WTF ending was indeed what they had come up with from the start.

HOLY SHIT SCOTT ROSENBERG IS LOOKING AT ME.

Okay, it's not the same.

I did get to ask him what the hell was up with the use of the Kaiser Chiefs' "Never Miss a Beat" in the second episode, since it didn't seem to fit with the tone, but he explained his reasoning, which did make a bit of sense, and said that the risk was that it would sound out of place. I did not repeat that, uh, yeah, that risk maybe didn't pay off. But we agreed that it was a great song.

I think the other producers were available to talk to, but I had nothing more to ask or learn, so I took my leave.

As I exited, however, I saw Blair Butler interviewing Geoff Stults!

Oh, pretty geeks, I love you so. I could have picked up a wristband for a signing with her on Sunday, but I didn't know what I would say to her or get signed.

I booked it to the Lionsgate booth only to discover, as expected, that they were out of Kick-Ass passes, but they would have more at 3. That was during the mysterious Warner Bros. panel that I had been planning on possibly skipping anyway, as long as I could find someone to save my seat.

I still had some time to kill since the Happy Town panel was showing the pilot, which I'd already seen, so I could run some errands, like getting my last three Kabuki trades signed by David Mack. He once thanked me for picking them up and reading, and I told him I was waiting for more. He said that was a good sign.

I wanted to go back to The Reason You Came. On the way, I had to stop for these folks.

I believe this was a mother-daughter team. Harley had been wearing the gloves earlier, but they switched as I arrived.

On my way to my destination, I noted that Darick Robertson was signing at the CBLDF booth at 3. I had some of Seanan's Transmetropolitan trades with me since I had borrowed them, and I wanted to get them signed for her if I could.

Then I met Zach Weiner, the man behind Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. I told him that I used to read it regularly, but it was just so wrong that I couldn't handle it every day, so now I checked occasionally and got my dose of wrongness.

Did I want a high-five? It was free. Sure!

HIGH-FIVE!

A sketch cost $0.01. By which he meant free, but he would take anything people would give him. He was collecting random stuff. So I ended up giving him a Local Habitation bookmark.

He was a pretty cool guy, and not as brashly offensive as you might expect from his comic. I told him I loved the use of mouseover panels, which I'd never seen before, and he said they were great because sometimes if a comic wasn't funny, he could make fun of it in the mouseover panel and recover. Like xkcd, the alt-joke is often funnier than the actual comic (but it needs the comic for the setup).

Since one comic I particularly liked was this one, I asked him to draw Batman and Robin. So he did! He hoped DC didn't sue him. No, no, it wasn't Batman; it was some other guy who dressed up like a bat.

That is his Thor pose, as he holds Batman stepping on Robin...on the way to JUSTICE.

I had worn my Lost shirt for M.C. Gainey, who had not noticed—Amy did notice a guy in a Wolfram and Hart shirt—but a couple people did comment on it, so that was cool.

Over at Wondermark, I saw that David Malki ! was offering mediocre sketches for a dollar.

"A dollar?" I said. "Zach drew me a sketch for free!"

A bystander said that a dollar was pretty much free. I said I had to think of what I wanted him to draw.

He could have drawn the people behind me!

Captain America! Girl-Link! Uh, I don't know who the other guy is. It's not Ness, is it?

I was all set to go upstairs but then I had to take some pictures because oh my God you guys.

OH MY GOD ADORABLE LITTLE BATMAN OMG. Big Batman was trying to get Lil' Batman to do a power pose. That...was his power pose.

And they had Arkham Asylum costumes! Nice! Complete with enhanced Harley cleavage.

Big Joker. Little Batman.

They seemed to be running late, since the Happy Town pilot was still going when I hit Esplanade, and the room was more full than I had expected so early in the day. I was able to grab a single seat for myself, but Seanan did swing an extra seat for me, so when the pilot was over, I looked for Seanan standing next to a row with a woman in a chicken hat and joined her.

The actual panel portion was uneventful, as they were saying many things we'd just heard them say in the press room! Man, it's no fun if you tell everyone. Seanan's ears did perk up when Scott Rosenberg mentioned 'Salem's Lot and Stephen King, though.

And Geoff took a picture of the crowd as they were leaving. Heh.

The Happy Town panel was so packed because of the Disney panel.

Fuck you, Disney. What the fuck was this bullshit where they don't even let them use the whole damn screen? Jesus fuck. They were going to deprive everyone of the giant Jake Gyllenhaal they came to see.

That would be director Mike Newell speaking. On the left...Jerry Bruckheimer! He's a real person.

So in the interest of actually getting this post done, I'm not going to go too in-depth on the panels because there are far better and more comprehensive write-ups available online if you want more information. I'll stick to the kind of stuff that doesn't get reported, like hilarity with the ASL interpreter. But that's later.

Jake Gyllenhaal! He's so dreamy!

Some girl told him he was pretty. He said that if she wasn't silhouetted, he could say the same thing.

Aw, Jake. He said they tracked down the inventor of parkour and abducted him in a helicopter and made him teach them free-running. So Jake learned a lot of moves and did a lot of his own stunts. But he wouldn't do a backflip for us. Boo!

The movie looks like your typical action-adventure movie with a dagger that can turn back time. Could be cool.

So that's what the director of National Treasure looks like.

Nicolas Cage! There was a lot of Nicolas Cage love, which I shared.

Jay Baruchel! Aw. He is as awkward and geeky as you'd expect. He's into anime. And he made a hadouken reference.

...Some blonde chick I don't know! But she was from Australia and had an accent, so I liked her.

They showed some clips from the movie, and it looked kind of fun. I do like Jay Baruchel, so it's cool to see him in a starring role. And I decided to get in line to ask him what that was like.

I...don't know what that thing is.

"Did someone come dressed as diarrhea?" asked Seanan.

Of course, the first person who asked a question basically asked what I was going to ask, so oops. But it wasn't like I was even going to get to ask anything. It did get me closer for pictures, though.

The obligatory deaf person thanked Jerry Bruckheimer for making such visually rich movies that could be enjoyed the deaf community. (This is at least the second time I've seen that happen, and I'll bet it happens more often than that.) And then she joked with Nicolas Cage and asked if he knew ASL because that would be awesome. And it turned out he did know a little! "You and me, together forever," he signed. Aw.

I took shitty pictures this year. I'm sorry.

Surprise guest John Ratzenberger!

They did an "experiment" where they would pick "random members of the audience" to do the voices for some new characters. The first guy was purportedly a random audience member, but the other two were the actual voice actors. Heh. The first guy was a really good sport, though, and he did well.

The woman is Kristen Schaal, who appeared to be very popular. She's on Flight of the Conchords. She was adorable onstage, all taken aback to be up in front of the thousands of people.

They did a little rehearsal, and then they showed the clip while they did the voice acting live. It was pretty neat, and Jeff Garlin threw in a WonderCon shout-out. Then they showed the final clip from the movie, and it was cool to hear the differences. Especially for the first guy, who wasn't the real voice actor.

Jeff Garlin looked familiar, but I don't think I've actually seen him in anything.

She waved to her boyfriends who told her how great she was.

Some kid asked John Ratzenberger what his favorite character that he had voiced was. He said P.T. Flea from A Bug's Life, and he gave a nice explanation of what he liked about the character and talked about seeing the maquette on his shelf and what it made him think about.

"I haven't seen A Bug's Life," said the kid. Haaaaaaaaa.

"You weren't born yet," conceded John.

Toy Story 3! It's Toy Story! Again!

Oh wait, I forgot the promised ASL interpreter hilarity. One of the panelists, Jon Turteltaub I think, asked if he was as funny through the interpreter. And then later a deaf person asked if she was as funny through the interpreter. And then one of the panelists, I think Jeff Garlin, started fucking with the interpreter by saying random shit he would have to sign. It was really hilarious. I guess you had to be there.

There was a mass exodus after the Disney panel, and I was able to scout out some better seats in the back of the front section, so we moved. I wasn't able to get enough for Shay and Christina, though, who were also making their way into the hall, but they found a couple seats in another section and did stop over to say hi.

The Resident Evil trailer was kind of awesome, and it won points for using a sweet remix of "The Outsider" by A Perfect Circle. It lost points for being entirely about the amazing 3D cameras they used (the same that were used for Avatar). Based on the trailer, though, it looks like a movie that would actually be really cool in 3D since there were a lot of shots that would be fun with shit popping out of the screen.

She looked very sophisticated. I really enjoyed her, and I like her more now. Yay Leeloo!

Seanan had slipped out after the trailer to go to the X-Men panel (yeah, there are panels about comics too!), but I saved her seat. I had been chatting with the kids behind me, so I asked if they would look after my seats while I slipped out to get something signed. Sure, no problem. I waited through a little of the Warner Bros. panel and watched the Losers trailer, and as I was leaving, the panelists walked in. Jeffrey Dean Morgan! Zoe Saldana! Chris Evans! Idris Elba! Gah! It would have been a fun panel, and I was sorry to miss it, but I needed to try to get a Kick-Ass ticket. Seanan had only been able to get one, and she was going to give that one to me since she wasn't going to stay out alone, but I wanted us both to go, and maybe Tavis, if I could score two.

At around 2:30, there was already quite a line at the booth, so I took my place and chatted with the guy in front of me for a while. Finally, 3:00 rolled around and the line started to move.

For a couple minutes, and then they said they were out of tickets. Wait, what? How was that fucking possible? How many tickets did they even have? Five?

The line dispersed, defeated. I milled about for a bit to see if I could figure out what was going on.

And then I saw that one of the guys in a Kick-Ass shirt had a whole stack of tickets in his hands held below his waist, and he was surreptitiously handing them to people, saying, "Don't make a scene, don't make a scene." I grabbed one and asked if I could have one for a friend and he gave me another. I did not make a scene, as asked. SCORE!

As I made my way through the crowd, heading in the direction of the CBLDF booth, I passed a couple on their way to the Lionsgate booth. I asked if they were going to get Kick-Ass tickets. They were. I told them that they would say they were out, but there was a guy sneakily handing out tickets, so I hope they were able to use my intel in time.

I got in line for the Darick Robertson signing, but he was running late, and I didn't want to disappear for too long in case the people holding my seat decided to give it up (I mean, all my stuff was there, so I would hope not, but still), so I noted that he would be there till six, so maybe I could catch him at the end of the day.

I walked back in the middle of the Nightmare on Elm St. panel. My seats were safe. I thanked the people behind me. And then I looked up at who was on stage.

What the shit! I knew it had Jackie Earle Haley, but I did NOT know it also had Kyle Gallner, Katie Cassidy, and Thomas Dekker! All people from my favorite shows!

Someone asked Jackie Earle Haley a question as Freddy Krueger. He was wearing a rubber mask that the person at the microphone made him take off so he could be heard correctly, but it was funny.

Besides my TV stars, there was also this chick named Rooney Mara who I don't know, but she seemed pretty and adorable, so I like her.

See? Adorable! Whoever she is.

I was one of the people going "Wooo!" for Supernatural.

Maybe he didn't want to be there.

WHAT IS THAT ON YOUR HEAD BEAVER.

Well, at least you're sitting next to a cute girl.

Oh, Thomas Dekker. He was talking about how he doesn't like doing remakes unless they're good, and I was like DUDE WHAT THE HELL YOU BETTER MENTION SCC and then he did and I cheered.

BEAVER. YOUR HAIR. WHAT.

I DON'T EVEN KNOW.

Revealing a tattoo, are we?

Next up was Splice, starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley.

Hey, it's the guy who drected Cube! He's back! The movie looked interesting, and I was intrigued by all the comments that it goes to DANGEROUS PLACES THAT SCI-FI HAS NEVER GONE TO BEFORE.

The moderator had promised a surprise at the end. The Losers, Nightmare on Elm St., and Splice, we had known about. But then...

We got a real Inception trailer! And...I hope it doesn't suck. It looks like it may be kind of slow and boring. But it has an awesome cast, and there are some cool things, and it's got this heist flick vibe in some scenes, so...don't disappoint me, Nolan!

After the panel, the two people adjacent to me left, and I immediately threw some shit on the seats to claim them for Shay and Christina. Some sad people came by and asked if they were taken, and I said they were, oh snap. I texted Shay to come on over.

Seanan set to rearranging our foursome so that Shay was not sitting in front of the short girl in the row behind us, which was very considerate of her. I'm pretty sure the number of cons she's attended is in the triple digits by now, so she has a lot of experience. We put Shay in front of the tallest person available in the back row. And then Seanan vowed to punch me because I had told her Shay was a friend from the play, but I had not mentioned that he played the clown, and she was coulrophobic.

"He's not wearing makeup!" I said. Nor was he wearing pants big enough to hide a Samoan.

Then, woo, trailers! Some were very popular and well received, like Iron Man 2 and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Seanan: "Is that actually the plot of Scott Pilgrm"? Me: "YES!"). The Predators trailer was also pretty cool.

They also showed the trailer for Twilight: Eclipse, and from the very first shot, there was large-scale booing, followed by chants of "Twilight sucks! Twilight sucks!" They booed the entire way through. I felt kind of bad for anyone who legitimately wanted to enjoy the trailer. They did not boo in retaliation when the boos became cheers for Iron Man 2.

John Romita, Jr., famous comic book artist! I guess I'm supposed to read his run on Spider-Man because everyone love it.

Hey, Clark Duke is in it!

Aaron Johnson, the titular Kick-Ass, is British! And mumbles! And is the butt of all jokes. Everyone identified him as an easy target, even the kid. He was not very good at being on a panel. Luckily, he was next to Clark Duke, who was. After one mumbly answer, he even said, "Did anyone understand a word of what he said?"

McLovin! And Hit-Girl! Although when someone yelled, "McLovin!!!" he said, "Come on, guys, this is Kick-Ass."

At some point Nic Cage started talking to himself or to Aaron or someone and he didn't realize how close he was to the microphone.

Nic Cage was weird but coherent during the Sorcerer's Apprentice panel. Now he was just in his own world, babbling on forever and ever about...very strange things. The mind of Nic Cage, I don't know. I love the guy, though, as did most of the audience. Nearly every question began with "Nicolas Cage, oh my God, I love all your movies!"

He said that comic books were like the old Greek myths, and I thought he made some interesting points, but he also talked about singing songs and shooting twelve-year-olds and wanting to get inside Chloe Moretz's dreams. We figured he'd been drinking or taking drugs or something, maybe for the laryngitis that made him sound like a "black blues singer." People actually started baiting him just to hear his ridiculous, rambly responses. It was pretty entertaining. And confusing. Oh, Nic Cage.

Time for BIG FACES.

Aw, it's her first con! Unless she was at Comic-Con. She was adorable and funny, and given that nearly everyone says that she steals the movie, I'm sure we'll be seeing more of her. And, hey, it turns out I've already seen her! She was in (500) Days of Summer!

After the Kick-Ass panel, it was time to exeunt omnes!

During the WB panel, someone had handed out tickets for free swag, but I had been gone, so Christina let me have her ticket, which was nice. But first we checked the Lionsgate booth to see if they had any screening tickets left, unlikely as it was. They did not. But Christina did get yet another person asking to take her picture.

She wasn't wearing a costume but one of her burlesque outfits. She wished she'd brought some cards to hand to all the people taking her picture. Free publicity!

On the way to the Lionsgate booth, I had stopped by the CBLDF booth to get in line for Darick Robertson, except they had just closed the line. So no signing for Seanan. Ah well.

It was time to split up. Christina wanted to go buy some art prints, and Shay and I wanted to pick up our WB swag, and Seanan had stuff to do. Also at some point Shay went and bought hardcovers of Gunnerkrigg Court, his very favorite webcomic, which Seanan also just happened to love. He had no idea there were books out, and they were having a buy-one-get-one-free sale.

Shay and I stood in line for our bag while I called Tavis and confirmed that he was in for the Kick-Ass screening, or else I would give his ticket to someone else. Tavis had been completely confused the whole day. First, he thought the screening was during the day. Then he thought it was in Moscone. Then he thought it was only the first twenty minutes. But finally he said he would meet us at the Metreon after dinner.

We picked up our bags and met Seanan at Shaenon Garrity's booth, where she was buying more Skin Horse books for people. Shaenon and I had apparently met years ago at Seanan's birthday dinner. I am a terrible person, because it seems like all of Seanan's friends remember me even when I don't remember them.

What did we get in our bags? Lots of T-shirts! Big T-shirts. A Dream Machine shirt (Inception). A "Drenolution" shirt (Splice). A Nightmare on Elm St. shirt, which was relevant to Seanan's interests so she could have it. Also a Nightmare keychain. And a Losers bag. And oooh, an Inception top! You know those freaky tops in the teaser trailer? I wondered if they were magic.

Anyway, we waited for Christina to rendezvous with us and then headed to the Metreon food court for dinner. I was nice and hungry, and this Luna Azul place looked good. I got a wet chicken burrito, and it was tasty. It was nice to chill for a bit, but the Kick-Ass screening was at 8, and we wanted to get in line by 6:30.

When Seanan and I hit the Metreon, the line was already up the stairs and around the corner. Shiiiiiit. I had expected people to get in line right after the panel ended, but I hadn't expected it to be this long by now. On the upside, we ended up right behind a guy who recognized me from the composers press room yesterday, Gil from Multiversity Comics. He made a good line companion, and once we were joined by Tavis, we became quite the gabby quartet.

A man had come by and stated that no cell phones were allowed, and they would confiscate them along with a driver's license so we could pick them up after the screening. None of us were really comfortable with that, and we considered whether it was worth it. We didn't think they could really be serious because that would be a clusterfuck before and after. Plus, someone in the line noted that it was totally against the spirit of the movie, in which viral video was a plot point.

I had recommended Rosemary and Rue to Tavis since he had seen me reading A Local Habitation at rehearsal, and, conveniently enough, Seanan had copies with her that she needed to unload, so she gave him a copy. Cool! And Gil, too, I think. She also showed him an ARC of Feed, which he said sounded interesting. Go WonderCon screening line promotion!

Finally, the line started moving, and soon after a girl came down to tell us that the auditorium was full, sorry. I called bullshit based on the earlier Lionsgate tactic of, you know, lying. We stayed in line. She came by later with codes for a free screening on Wednesday, so if we didn't make it, we could go to that. Or at least I could. The other three didn't think they'd be able.

We stayed resolute as the line slowly moved. We had hidden our cell phones in preparation for avoiding confiscation.

There was lots of screaming below, and we saw a camera crew filming the anticipatory audience. Eventually, we became part of said audience, and we put on our excited, cheery faces. "WOOOOOOO!!!" Even though the girl came by and once again told us that the theatre was full. And yet, the line kept moving, so we stayed.

Our resolve began to crumble, especially as it passed 8:00 and I wondered whether they'd already started the movie. I didn't want to get in and miss the beginning. The camera crew came back and we still feigned excitement, even knowing we weren't getting in.

Finally, we admitted defeat around 8:20, a few yards from the front of the line. Perhaps if we had gotten dinner to go. Perhaps if we had gone directly to the Metreon after the panel. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. At least I could make the screening on Wednesday.

(Hi, this is Future Sunil. Actually, you will get to the Metreon at 5:30 for the 7:30 screening, and you STILL WON'T GET IN. You'll get a little closer to the front, but it looks like you're going to have to pay to see this fucking movie.)

It had been a fun two hours in line, at least. Good company.

Tavis left for Masquerade, and Seanan, Gil, and I walked to BART to go back to the East Bay. We had missed the movie, but maybe we had made a new friend.

Tomorrow would be very low-key, thankfully, and promised to be Chuck-tastic.Current Mood:aggravatedCurrent Music: A Perfect Circle - The Outsider (Resident Renholder Mix)

That's pretty standard, really. They hand out more tickets than they have seats, because most free screeners will have a one-in-three actual attendance, and they don't want an un-packed house for the "sneak preview."

Wow, there were a lot of super-cool people at WonderCon! That's quite a line-up. Now I feel both better and worse about not being there - better because your post is so comprehensive, worse because it shows me all the awesome crap I missed.

AMY ACKER. I love all your random pics of her being crazy.

WHY is Chris Nolan standing up there with a "GEOFF BOUCHER" nametag, blasphemous! I lovelovelove Nolan and I love that he makes movies with his wife. I don't know why, it's just badass. I don't want to even think of the possibility of Inception sucking so let's knock on wood every time we hear/think the title, okay?

On the left...Jerry Bruckheimer! He's a real person.

LOL. Oh, Prince of Persia - I don't think anyone realizes how stupid excited I am to watch that movie.

...he also talked about singing songs and shooting twelve-year-olds and wanting to get inside Chloe Moretz's dreams.

WTS Nic Cage! I had no idea he was such a looney. It kinda fits, though - he's one of those critic-proof actors who can just do whatever the hell he wants and it has little to no impact on his career, because people love him, period.

Wow, there were a lot of super-cool people at WonderCon! That's quite a line-up. Now I feel both better and worse about not being there - better because your post is so comprehensive, worse because it shows me all the awesome crap I missed. Next year, come up!

AMY ACKER. I love all your random pics of her being crazy. I wish I'd gotten better pictures of her.

WHY is Chris Nolan standing up there with a "GEOFF BOUCHER" nametag, blasphemous!He was a surprise guest! Geoff Boucher was the moderator and had the podium before him.

WTS Nic Cage! I had no idea he was such a looney.He was great. So many weird things! But he really believed them, you know? Like he was in his own little world where he made sense. When he said he wanted to get inside Chloe's dreams, I was just...WHAT.

I always wondered if I would like Milla in person. I'm glad to hear you thought she was cool. She was fun and told stories about her kid, and how she and her husband toss around ideas for new things to do in the RE movies at home.

WB swag - I didn't have a ticket. When I got to the front of the line with my friends, the guy packing bags said "everybody make sure you have your tickets out; if you don't have a ticket, you don't get swag!". But when I got to the front, I just smiled at the girl and told her I didn't have a ticket and she gave me a bag anyway *g*

Kick-Ass screening - oh man. I didn't realize you missed 2. That really sucks! Do you know if they really did collect licenses/cellphones or if they were just saying so to get people to leave?